


Journey of the swallow

by Papaveri



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/F, Hair Braiding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-30 00:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10149422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papaveri/pseuds/Papaveri
Summary: Severa has only learned to help and to heal with her bare hands, so she braids Lucina's hair before she goes.





	

It's the kind of dark blue that reflects off a bird's black feathers, Lucina's hair, but you couldn't see that now that the war (all dust, all murky water) has dirtied it into an ugly mass the color of dried ink. Severa combs it all the same. She has trained hands.

_A hundred swipes for every side, Severa, and it'll be easier to clean later._

She remembers, advice from a father that gave her long limbs and constant advice and hair the color of roads, brown and wispy. He carved a comb for her out of the handle of a lance he wasn't going to use anymore, and twisted white and red thread into hair ties she keeps tied to her wrist instead of in her pigtails; not to lose them, you see. It's easier to control her hands than it is to control her hair.

It's hard, though, to control her hands through Lucina's hair. Her fingers work on the tangles her comb can't dissolve: she holds the strands delicately, as if the young woman in front of her (the young woman with a scar on her shoulder that's so deep it will cut into her flesh forever, the young woman with muscles so firm she can't really sink her fingers into her arm sometimes, when she tries to pinch her to scold her) would flinch from a particularly harsh tug.

A small part of her wants to try it.

And Lucina does flinch.

"Maybe we should just cut it," Severa says. "But I guess doing it with a knife would just ruin your tips. Won't look too gallant."

(She likes her hair. She likes to run her hands through it, maybe some day she'll do it without an excuse? It's a small thought, tiny and prickly like a thorn.)

"No, I… I want to keep it.”

Severa can't see it, but she feels the slight movement of Lucina's hands in the way her elbows bend. She crosses her fingers when she thinks, she's noticed.

“You'll still look like a princess with the crown and all, though.”

Lucina chuckles.

“Am I not supposed to look like a prince, in any case?”

“True, true.”

Severa has only seen prince Marth in her mother's history books; she associates his vague features with the warmth of her mother's lap and her stiff voice and the mention of him makes her flinch.

There's something, something, some kind of liberation in building him into Lucina, some kind of reassurance. Severa feels as if they're capturing a blessing, ancient and unwavering like Lucina's sword, into the braids she's twisting in her hands.

(It's a silly idea but she tucks the braids as close to Lucina's nape as she can; she can't work magic with her tongue like the healers but her parents taught her to work with her fingers, and she presses the hair until she can comb the sections she's left free on it, covering everything. She lets her hair stand on Lucina's hair for a bit. Her fingers on her hidden braids. Her palms on the white back of her neck, impossibly soft.)

And this is how Lucina will go meet Naga and change the past, if all goes well. Maybe it's because it still sounds absolutely surreal. Maybe it's that.

It's not happening, so when it's time to say goodbye she, she of all people (but oh of course it's her), she hesitates.

 

When they meet again (when the war is over, and Severa is a bit lost with herself, in all that world), Lucina's hair is back to its natural feather blue.

“What did you want to tell me, before I came here?”

Severa's nose wrinkles. She hasn't forgotten, but she expected Lucina had.

(It's nice that she hasn't; that gentle heat in her cheeks, too.

What was it, really?

_Don't go_?

_Stay safe, take me with you, I love you_?

Just _I love you_ , maybe, maudlin and stupid, but she can afford that now that they're all alone and her mother casts a shadow over Ylisstol's training grounds again, not on her. Maybe she can.)

“Oh, but it's a lady's secret now!”

She's glad they didn't cut Lucina's hair. It feels cool and soft in her fingers now.

**Author's Note:**

> This might very well be the most pretentious title I've ever used and I have several ones in Latin, but I needed a black bird that appears in spring. It's, well, symbolic, you see. And I keep an animal theme in my FE:A fic titles!
> 
> Anyhow, all my friends are playing Awakening now thanks to Heroes. None of them liked Severa, or still don't have them, but she's one of my favorite characters in the game... I've also been wanting to write something with this pairing for a very, very long time.   
> I think everyone must have written or at least thought about this when Kozaki explained how Lucina's "short" hair works, but hey! More for everyone to read!
> 
> In any case, thanks a bunch for checking this!


End file.
